Veterans transitioning to civilian life possess many marketable skills, but Lucas O’Hara credits blacksmithing for forging his path to success. On a recent episode of Free Range American with Evan Hafer and Trevor Thompson, the Grizzly Forge ...
Gear
Off Script: Free Range Q&A With Dalton Villines, Axe Thrower
Dalton Villines could easily be a fan favorite on The Walking Dead. As a matter of fact, the folks at AMC might want to take note ASAP. He'd be as deadly with axes as Daryl is with his crossbow. The Kingston, Arkansas, native and Marine veteran ...
Sporting Art: Zippo Lighters Designed with the Outdoors in Mind
Early man in Africa and Eurasia first harnessed the power of fire 2 million years ago, discovering its usefulness for not only warmth and light but also protection from predators — and the ability to cook food. The earliest cave paintings, ...
Camp Stoves 101: Understanding and Choosing the Right Cooker
There is nothing better than cooking over an open fire, but it’s not without its challenges. Regulating heat is difficult, and getting the right amount of flame and ember can be tough for even the most experienced fire-builder. The best choice for ...
Buying the Right Sleeping Bag Made Simple
Perhaps no single piece of gear is more critical to comfort, and even survival, in the backcountry than a good sleeping bag. At first blush, you might think that choosing a sleeping bag would be a pretty simple endeavor. But fill material, ...
Pro Tips For Shooting Better Outdoor Photography
Shutter speed, aperture, exposure, focal length, depth of field, composition. There’s a lot to take in if you want to up your photo game. Whether you’re using an iPhone, a point-and-shoot digital camera, or the latest and greatest Sony Alpha, putting ...
GEAR TEST: The Ultimate Replaceable Blade Knife Test
Sharpening and honing a knife blade is a necessary outdoor skill, but it’s hard to beat the convenience, weight, and surgical precision of modern scalpel-like replaceable-blade knives. Many of the most knowledgeable hunters and outdoorsmen have found ...
Starter Kit: Gear Up for Turkey Season
Turkey season generally goes something like this: you find them, you call them, you shoot them. It's simple to turkey hunt—but it's not easy. Spring is most hunters’ favorite time to chase turkeys because the season plays on the one chink in a ...
Starter Kit: Learning To Fly Fish — Flies
There are as many fly-fishing patterns as there are bugs and baitfish in nature. Understanding fly patterns and then selecting the right flies to put in your box is actually pretty simple though, which means you won’t have to rely on luck alone to ...
The Spider-Web: An Odd Fly-Fishing Rod Used Beyond WWI’s Trenches
Pvt. John Henry Hirst was determined to land a trout on the fly. It was nearing the summer of 1915, and the Germans had just launched a surprise offensive along the Western Front. While other British soldiers braced for impact from a German artillery ...
From Battle to Field: 5 Popular Military Knives That Are Also Great Hunting Knives
Every human has the knife-appreciation gene in their blood. We’ve inherited the recessive trait from our earliest and most inventive hunter-gatherer brethren. While the trait is not expressed in everyone, for those who served in the military or spend ...
Starter Kit: Learning To Fly Fish — Gear Up
Fly fishing can seem overwhelming at first. Truth is, it’s not. Learning how to fly fish is actually easy and fun as hell. And it won’t immediately empty your wallet. With the right gear and some fundamentals, you’ll be ready to pester farm-pond ...
Starter Kit: Learn To Cross-Country Ski
Flat, straight trails. Skinny, pointed skis. Boots that look more like high-tech sneakers. Bindings that only lock you in by your toes. It’s easy to think that cross-country skiing is the awkward junior high version of downhill that somehow missed ...
Process a Moose Solo: Here are the Tools You’ll Need
Trevor Thompson told the Free Range American podcast recently about the time he was able to process a moose by himself on a hunt in British Columbia. He ended up filling his tag with a great bull early in the week, so he had the time and ...
Understanding Blades: The Survival Knife
There is no such thing as a survival knife. Knives have been called that and have been marketed that way — as some kind of magical tool that will save your ass in some unlikely situation. But that idea is inherently flawed. Sure, some ...
Sex Dungeon? The Best Named Fly-Fishing Flies of All Time
Fly-fishing used to be a particularly stodgy affair. That was true also regarding the names of flies; they were either named after their inventor or given an unimaginative moniker based on what they imitated. Fortunately, that has all changed as new ...
2020 FRA Holiday Gift Guide: The Adventure Travel Wish List
Shopping for traveling adventure seekers is tough. So much gear marketed at globe-trotters is straight junk, like outlet adapters we’ll never need, passport wallets, or goofy hats and vests. And a good adventure, if anything, helps us pare down on ...
2020 FRA Holiday Gift Guide: The Hunting Wish List
When we’re not making coffee or printing T-shirts, you can bet the crew here at Black Rifle Coffee Company and Free Range American are out hunting. How into hunting is this team? The HR department gives away hunts for filling out internal work ...
2020 FRA Holiday Gift Guide: The Fishing Wish List
The holiday shopping season is in full swing, and for outdoors enthusiasts that means one thing: new gear. New gear to gift our buddies who fish and hunt. New gear to put in our own letters to Santa. This year, FRA decided to go big and asked ...
Bushcraft Knives vs. Survival Knives
The terms “bushcraft knife” and “survival knife” probably go back to the 1980s. The first comes from a seminal book by the Canadian survival expert Mors Kochanski. Bushcraft was published in 1987 and is an instruction manual on how to live in the ...
OnX Hunt: Is This Hunting App Worth $100?
In the second week of my 2019 elk hunt I was playing the public land shuffle — bouncing around forest service and Bureau of Land Management, or BLM, roads trying to locate elk while avoiding other hunters. No stranger to this game, I had pre-plotted ...
How to Pick the Perfect Backcountry Campsite
The sun set to the north that day, at least as framed by the steep walls of the Chugach Mountains, casting a golden light over the valley. Up in the alpine, 4,000 feet above sea level, we watched the day end. It was a good campsite and one of the ...
MOLLE: The Evolution of the Modern Tactical Load Carrying System
The modular lightweight load-carrying equipment (MOLLE) platform has been an integral part of the standard-issue military backpacks since the early days of the Global War on Terror. Since then, first responders have also embraced elements of this ...
GEAR TEST: The Ultimate Bino Harness Shootout
With binoculars ranging in price from $300 to $500 for entry-level glass to more than $3,000 on the high end, it only makes sense to protect them. Not long ago, that meant a harness of a few elastic straps that held exposed binoculars close to the ...
Review: Garmin’s Instinct Tactical is Fit for the Wild
When people think of Garmin, they generally think of the first GPS unit they had for their vehicle. But Garmin’s global positioning system technology is used across a variety of industries, including aviation, marine, fitness, and outdoor recreation. ...
4 Off-Grid Water Sterilization Methods for the Backcountry
When it comes to going off the grid, whether it’s backpacking, hunting, or fishing, water is a basic need. One can survive for weeks without food but only days without water. Unfortunately, humans are not equipped to drink water from natural sources ...
Review: The Tyto 1.1 is a Knife Every Outdoorsman Should Own
Hunters across the United States head into the wilderness each autumn in search of various game. Aside from their weapon, the most important item that every should hunter carry is a good knife, which allows them to properly care for the meat after ...
Review: Stay Warm with Eberlestock’s -22 Degree Euro Down Sleeping Bag
Looking up through the spruce trees, I could see the stars, bright and sharp overhead. A cold breeze blew all night, and the day had been cold enough to half-freeze my water bottle while I hiked. But tucked into my sleeping bag in a bivouac camp, I ...
The Ultimate Outlayer System: Sitka Fanatic Jacket and Bib
While there’s a certain segment of the population who views the dropping temperatures and falling leaves as a sign for all things pumpkin spice and flannel, there’s a whole other segment who sees a purer purpose: the rut. In most areas of the United ...
Kifaru Slick Bag: A Zero-Degree Sleeping Bag Made for the Wilderness
The chief debate among people searching for a cold-weather sleeping bag is the choice between down and synthetic fill. As a rule, down fill is lighter and more compressible than synthetic fill. However, down clumps when it gets wet and loses much of ...
